Whatever Happened to Rin?
by WeevilOne
Summary: The story of Rin from where Kakashi Gaiden leaves off to her eventual death. [Rated T for the occasional swear word.]
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

"Rin, time to go!"

Rin stopped staring at the stars and turned towards her sensei and teammate.

"Home?" she asked.

"Our mission here is done," the Yellow Flash told her.

She nodded sadly as Kakashi spluttered in shock.

"What about Obito?! What about bringing his body back?!"

The Yellow Flash placed his hand comfortingly on Kakashi's shoulder as Rin shook her head and picked up her backpack. As she turned, Kakashi saw the scratched and bloody forehead protector tied to the back of it.

* * *

"Good morning Kakashi!" Rin said with a smile as she wiped her wet hands on her white apron.

"Rin! What are you doing?!" Kakashi exclaimed, slipping the kunai he had been pointing at Rin back into its holster.

"Your dishes. You seem to have acquired a large stack of them since we've gotten back. When was the last time you washed dishes?"

"Never mind that. What are you doing _here_?" he asked.

"I'm not allowed to visit one of my teammates?" she asked innocently.

"Your only teammate," Kakashi said angrily as he hurled his nightshirt violently in the general direction of what looked like a laundry pile.

Rin's eyes widened in horror. "Kakashi, I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be," he muttered, stomping off to the bathroom.

She followed him in.

"What the hell are you doing?! Why are you even here Rin?!"

"My parents threw me out," she said quietly. "I didn't know where to go."

"Oh."

For the first time that morning, Kakashi really looked at Rin. Her cheeks were splotchy and her eyes were red and puffy. The stripes on her cheeks were smudged and slightly crooked. Little bits of hair stuck up at odd angles and not only was her forehead protector slightly off center, it was upside down as well. She really is a mess, he thought. She's probably cried all night.

"What happened?" Kakashi finally asked.

"We got into an argument," she whispered. "They don't like me being a shinobi – they never have. They didn't really say anything about it during the war because they knew the village needed every ninja they had to fight…"

"But now that it's over they don't want you to be a ninja anymore?"

"Always quick," Rin said with a watery smile. "They're afraid that I'll get hurt, or killed. They were really upset when they found out that one of my teammates had been killed."

"You told them about Obito?" Kakashi asked, surprised. He wouldn't have thought Rin would have told her parents if they didn't like her being a shinobi.

She shook her head. "They found his forehead protector. They got really angry and they were waving it around like, like it was something dirty. I pretty much lost it at that point. I said some things that I probably shouldn't have said, and they ordered me out of the house. I grabbed my things and came here. I'm sorry. I'll leave now."

Kakashi grabbed her arm as she turned to go.

"It's all right. You can stay. I don't mind."

Impulsively he wrapped her in a hug.

"Don't worry. It'll be okay."

Rin burst into tears.

"Kakashi, I didn't know what to do," she babbled. "They were so angry. I was too, but when I walked out that door I realized that I was all alone. It scared me."

Kakashi didn't know what possessed him to say it.

"You'll never be alone. I'll always be here."

Rin wiped her eyes and gave him a funny look.

"What happened to the Kakashi that thought his team could only slow him down?" she asked.

"Those who do not care for and support their teammates are even lower than trash," he whispered. "That's what Obito told me when I wanted to finish the mission and abandon you. I'm not just Kakashi anymore."

"That's sweet," she said with a sad smile. "I need to get to the hospital, though. My shift starts in ten minutes. I'll see you tonight, all right?"

Kakashi nodded as Rin planted a kiss on his cheek before running out the door.

* * *

After Rin had gone, Kakashi decided to unpack the bag she had left next to the couch. Opening it up, he found a second set of the clothes Rin always wore, an extra pair of sandals, a copy of the team photo that they had taken when they first became a team, a hairbrush, a couple of medical scrolls, and Obito's forehead protector wrapped carefully in a handkerchief. Fingering the deep scratches in Obito's forehead protector, Kakashi realized how rushed Rin must have been when she left her house, because she hadn't packed any sheets, towels, or other basic necessities.

After he found places to put away her minimal possessions, Kakashi decided to pick up the rest of Rin's things from her house. Luckily her parents were at work, so Kakashi had no trouble breaking into her room through her window. Once inside, he tossed his backpack on her bed and began stuffing the rest of her clothing inside. Once her closet and dresser were empty, he made his way to the bathroom and plucked her towels off the rack. Going back to her bedroom, Kakashi lashed the towels to his backpack. That done, he stripped her bed and gathered up everything to leave. As an afterthought, he grabbed the plant sitting next to her bed as well.

As Kakashi ran down the streets, everyone stared at him. Was the Yellow Flash's prize student running down the street with purple sheets and a potted plant? Kakashi didn't notice the stares, though. He was exhausted and couldn't figure out why. It wasn't as if he had done anything particularly tiring that morning. By the time he reached his apartment, he could barely hold himself up. He was only able to slide the door open before he collapsed.

* * *

Rin yawned and rubbed her eyes as she made her way to Kakashi's apartment at the end of the day. She'd had a long day assisting the older medical ninja, and after work she had gone to the grocery store to pick up food so that she didn't use all of Kakashi's. As she approached, she was surprised to find the door already open. She was even more surprised to find Kakashi in a heap on the floor under her sheets clutching her plant.

Dropping the groceries on the floor, Rin detangled Kakashi from the sheets and rolled him onto his back. She couldn't see any blood; that was a good sign. His pulse and temperature felt normal. No obvious signs of trauma. The only abnormality she could detect was his lack of consciousness. As she doubted Kakashi had decided to take a nap in the middle of his doorstep (and he wasn't waking up with her hauling him about), she began to drag his limp body over to the couch. Somehow she managed to prop him onto the couch, where she could maneuver him onto her back. Grumbling about heavy teammates who inconveniently collapsed on their doorsteps, Rin began her walk back to the hospital. She could only hope that someone there knew what was wrong with him.

* * *

When Kakashi woke up, he found himself in a strange bed with something covering his left eye. As he struggled to sit up, he felt someone helping him from his blind side. He was about to turn to see who it was when Rin walked through the door carrying a tray with tea on it.

"I told you he would be waking up soon," Rin said, looking past Kakashi's left ear.

"Did I ever doubt your medical ability?" the Yellow Flash's familiar voice responded.

"Sensei! What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked.

"One of my students collapses on his front doorstep and I'm not supposed to come and see him? Rin came and got me."

"Oh."

Rin handed Kakashi a cup of tea, and began pouring one for Yondaime.

"How are you feeling Kakashi?" Rin asked as she leaned over Kakashi to hand the Yellow Flash his tea.

"I've been better," Kakashi mumbled as he sipped his tea.

Rin rolled her eyes as the Yellow Flash chuckled.

"I don't like this either," Kakashi informed them as he reached up to pull off the bandage over his eye.

The Yellow Flash grabbed Kakashi's wrist before Rin had time to do more than reach out for it.

"Don't take it off."

"But I can't see out of that side," Kakashi complained.

"That's why you collapsed, Kakashi," Rin explained. "You can't deactivate the sharingan and it's using up too much chakra. You'll have to keep it covered unless you're using it."

"I'm not going to wear a bandage over my eye for my entire life!"

"You could get a patch," Rin suggested.

"I can't wear a patch over my eye! I'll look like some sort of pirate!"

"I've got an idea," Yondaime told him. "Close your eyes."

Kakashi obeyed and felt the bandage being taken off. He resisted the urge to open his eyes to see what was going on. He felt a piece of fabric that was hardened in the middle being placed diagonally across his forehead to cover his eye. Reaching up to feel it, Kakashi realized that the Yellow Flash was tying his forehead protector across his eye.

"How's that?" Yondaime asked him.

Kakashi opened his right eye and looked around.

"I still can't see out of that side. What good is having an eye if you can't use it?"

"You can still use it," Yondaime explained patiently, "you just can't use it all the time."

"Unless you want me to come home every night to find you collapsed on the doorstep, you'll have to get used to wearing it," Rin told him matter of factly. "And incidentally, what were you doing with my sheets and plant?"

"Err… I was unpacking for you and realized that you didn't have any sheets or towels or anything… So I decided to go to your house and pick them up for you…" he muttered, turning slightly pink.

"My parents let you in?!"

"Well, no…"

The Yellow Flash began laughing.

"You know," he said, gasping, " as the current Hokage, it would be my duty to punish any ninja found breaking into civilians' houses."

"Kakashi!" Rin admonished.

"Well, I didn't really break in… I just wanted to pick up your sheets and stuff…" Kakashi trailed off lamely.

"Why'd you bring Mr. Ukki then?" she demanded.

"Who?" Kakashi and the Yellow Flash chorused.

Rin blushed.

"My plant. I named him Mr. Ukki when I was younger."

The Yellow Flash tried to hide a smile as Kakashi smirked.

"At least I'm not the one who collapsed after breaking into someone's house," Rin snapped at Kakashi. "And did you have to go through all of my things?"

"I'm sorry. I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. When can I go home?"

Rin shot their former sensei a questioning look. He shrugged.

"I can carry him back if you'd like," the Yellow Flash answered her unasked question.

"Why can't I just walk home?" Kakashi asked.

As Rin opened her mouth to answer, Yondaime quickly interjected.

"You can, if that's what you want."

Kakashi shrugged, and slowly swung himself out of the bed. As he stood up, he felt his legs give out from under him. Before he could hit the ground, he found himself in the Yellow Flash's arms.

"Oh," Kakashi murmured.

"You'll be like this for about a week," Rin told him. "I can pick up a pair of crutches for you, if you'd like."

"That'd be nice," Kakashi said quietly.

Rin nodded.

"I'll meet you two at the entrance in a few minutes then," she told Yondaime as she turned to walk out the door.

After Rin left, Yondaime looked at Kakashi.

"Rin is living with you now?"

Kakashi couldn't help blushing at his former sensei's knowing look.

"Her parents kicked her out. I told her she could stay with me."

"I see," the Yellow Flash murmured, looking thoughtful.

* * *

Once the trio had arrived at Kakashi's apartment and they had gotten Kakashi settled in bed, the Yellow Flash pulled Rin aside.

"Rin, Kakashi told me that your parents kicked you out of the house."

"Yes, they kicked me out this morning," Rin said, looking down in shame. "We got into a fight because they don't want me being a shinobi."

"I see," he paused, "As you may know, the village will provide shinobi with housing, but only once they reach chunnin rank. It is assumed that unless a genin has been orphaned he or she will live with his or her parents. This poses you a slight problem. You can't have your own housing until you become a chunnin, yet you can't live with your parents."

Rin nodded mutely.

"There is a chunnin exam coming up in four months. If you would like, I can place you with a genin team to take the exams with at that point. Until then you can continue to live with Kakashi, or I can try to find you temporary housing with another family."

"I'd rather live with Kakashi if he doesn't mind," Rin said quietly. She continued bitterly, "I don't want to be placed with another family like a war orphan when my parents are alive and happily running their tea shop because people like Obito died to protect this village."

The Yellow Flash nodded understandingly.

"In that case, I'll try to find a two bedroom shinobi apartment for you two to move into. I've already talked with Kakashi – he says he doesn't mind living with you, and he does qualify for a larger apartment now that he's a jounin."

"You can do that?" Rin asked in awe.

The Yondaime chuckled.

"I'm the Hokage now, remember?"

Rin blushed.

"Oh yeah. That helps doesn't it?" she asked, grinning.

* * *

Note: I think this has a bit too much dialogue... It also seems like it's trying to shift its focus away from Rin and onto Kakashi. I'm trying to keep the focus on Rin, but I think Kakashi played a large role in her life, so I'm sorry if the focus seems to stray at times.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

A few weeks later, Rin and Kakashi were moving in to their new apartment. It was fairly spacious with two bedrooms, a kitchen area that was separate from the living room, and much to Rin's delight, a small garden adjacent to her room.

The first thing that Rin did when they began moving in was to inspect the garden. It wasn't very large and it hadn't been very well taken care of. There were sparse patches of grass interspersed with weeds and large clumps of dirt. Rin spent hours working on the garden until it was ordered to her satisfaction. Kakashi just rolled his eye and concentrated on moving the furniture.

The next time he stepped foot into the garden it had been transformed into a haven of green. Rin had placed potting benches along one wall of the garden while leaving the rest of the area for grass and shrubs. Most of benches were filled with various herbs, all neatly labeled in Rin's handwriting. The potting bench closest to the apartment was well stocked with gardening tools, seeds, extra pots, and a mortar and pestle for grinding plants into oblivion for medicinal use.

Rin grinned at Kakashi when he stopped dead in the doorway, staring at the garden.

"Like it?"

"Wow, Rin. This is… I don't even know how to describe it. Where did you get all the plants?"

"I already had some of them, but most of the plants are from the Yamanaka's flower shop or just plants that I've collected from around the area. A few I picked up when we were on missions too."

Kakashi cocked his head and gave Rin an odd look.

"You collect plants on missions?"

"Sure," she answered, shrugging. "Why not? A lot of the foreign plants have medicinal properties and can't be found anywhere around here."

"You really like plants that much?" he asked her, as he just couldn't understand investing so much time on something inanimate, however potentially useful it might be.

"Hey, they're a lot nicer than some people I know," Rin laughed, giving Kakashi a playful shove.

She was surprised when he smiled under the mask instead of crossing his arms and glaring at her. She was even more surprised when he began tickling her, telling her it was her punishment for working on the garden instead of helping him with moving their boxes into the apartment. Laughing, they both ran off to finish moving things.

* * *

Rin was neatly placing books on the bookshelf in the living room as Kakashi came in with yet another box of books. 

"How many books do you have Kakashi?"

He dumped the box on the floor before responding.

"Probably four more boxes, but that's the last of it from my old apartment. Why?"

"How can you afford all of these books? Do you eat?" Rin asked him. She knew Kakashi liked to read – after all, he was never without reading material – but the number of books he had seemed a bit extreme. Most of the ninja she knew actually kept weapons in their weapon's pouch, not whatever book they were currently working on. It had never affected their missions, though, so Rin had never commented on his strange habit before.

Kakashi shrugged, oblivious to the thoughts running through his teammate's head.

"I've been getting chunnin wages since I was six, remember? Besides, I like to read," he said, smiling under his mask at the thought of his books.

"I can see that," Rin said, rolling her eyes. "But look at these books. You've got_Bedtime Stories for Your Little Ninja_ next to _Kunai: Advanced Techniques III_, which is next to _Knitting for Beginners_. Do you actually read these things?"

Kakashi coughed.

"Well, yes, I do actually. Although the third advanced kunai techniques book should go with the others in the series. I think it might be in this box…"

Kakashi trailed off as he saw Rin staring at him incredulously.

"What's wrong?"

"I can understand you having all these ninja technique books. I mean, goodness knows I have enough medical jutsu scrolls and anatomy books. I can even understand the children's stories. But _Knitting for Beginners_? And, what's this?" Rin asked, pulling another book out of the box, "_Radish Gardening for Fun and Profit_?" She pulled a few more books out of the box. "How about _A Civilian's Guide to a Hidden Shinobi Village_? You're hardly a civilian, my jounin friend. Or _The Art of Fan Dancing_? Don't tell me that you're a dancer in your spare time. What about _Sewing Jackets for Dogs: A Practical Manual_? I doubt you'll be going into business selling clothing for dogs."

Kakashi looked down and shuffled his feet before responding.

"I just like to read, I guess."

Rin snorted and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I have the civilian guide book because I wanted to see what they think about our occupation," Kakashi explained. "And I have the dog jacket book because Pakkun was complaining that he got cold sometimes."

"Pakkun?" Rin asked, raising her eyebrow again.

"You haven't met Pakkun?" he said blinking in surprise.

"No…" Rin told him in the suspicious voice that suggested that she thought he wasn't being quite truthful.

Kakashi grinned and pulled down his mask to bite his thumb. He made a series of hand symbols and slammed his palm to the floor. To Rin's amazement eight nin dogs appeared, all wearing the same navy blue jacket. Most of them regarded her lazily, but one small pug came up and planted a paw on her foot.

"Yo."

Rin blinked at it for a bit before looking questioningly at Kakashi.

"Say hello to Pakkun, Rin," he said grinning.

"Err, hello," Rin said to the pug.

"Got any food?" he asked her.

"No…"

"Then why am I here?" the pug asked disdainfully.

"Rin wanted to know why I had a book about sewing dog jackets," Kakashi told him as Rin nodded dumbly.

"Well, if _that's_ all you needed," Pakkun muttered before all eight dogs disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"He's a bit arrogant," Kakashi told Rin, grinning.

Rin smiled back, shaking her head.

"You never told us that you had nin dogs," she said, still shaking her head.

Kakashi shrugged.

"It never came up and we never got sent on any tracking missions."

Rin was quiet for a moment.

"Is that why you have these?" she asked softly, gently touching the tattoos between his lips and his chin.

The grin that Kakashi wore ever since he was able to surprise Rin slowly faded.

Oops, Rin thought. She knew that she was one of the few people Kakashi ever took his mask of in front of, but even so she never knew why he had two fangs tattooed on his face. She had never asked, and to the best of her knowledge neither had Obito. She supposed their sensei must have known, but she had never thought to ask him. She doubted the Yellow Flash would have told her anyway.

Looking at Kakashi and seeing the anguish in his face, Rin wished she hadn't finally worked up the courage to ask.

"I didn't mean… I mean you… You don't have to answer that," Rin stammered, wishing fervently that she knew some kind of time-reversal jutsu.

"It's fine," Kakashi muttered, scowling.

"No it's not," Rin told him. "You're upset."

Kakashi shut his eyes and visibly tried to relax. He seemed to be looking for the nerve to tell Rin the truth.

"No," Kakashi told her. "I don't have these fangs because I have nin dogs. I got these when I passed my chunnin exams." He paused for a second. "You know my dad was the White Fang, right?"

Rin nodded.

"Well, he was called that because he had a fang shaped scar under his mouth. When I was little I wanted to be just like him. He pushed me to be the best I could be, and he was really proud when I became a genin. I kept telling him that I was going to be just like him one day. He would always laugh and say that I'd be twice as good. He promised me that when I made chunnin he'd let me get a tattoo, just like he had his scar. After I passed the exams he took me to get the tattoo, but he told me I should have two fangs because I was twice what he was."

Kakashi stopped for a moment to pull up his forehead protector and wipe Obito's eye. After he pulled it back down he continued softly.

"After that his nickname for me was White Fangs. He always laughed when he said it. But then there was that awful mission and he stopped laughing. I didn't know what was wrong, and then… well, you know what happened then.

"After that I didn't want to be like him any more. I started wearing the mask so I wouldn't have to look like him. I didn't want to be White Fangs. I didn't want to see him every time I looked in the mirror. I was so ashamed of him. I was ashamed to be his son."

Kakashi looked up as he felt Rin take one of his hands in both of hers. He was surprised to see that she had tears in her eyes.

Rin released his hand to wipe her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't know."

"It's not something that I usually tell people," Kakashi told her. "For years I was too ashamed to even admit that the White Fang was my father. And yet… he had the right of it all along. The lives of your teammates _are_ more important than finishing the mission. I wish I had seen that before. Maybe Obito would still be alive…"

"Oh Kakashi," Rin sighed, taking his hand again, "you can't know that. He may have died anyway. We all know the risks we take when we become shinobi."

"Do we really?" Kakashi murmured. "Do all the young graduates from the academy really realize that they will inevitably give their lives for the sake of the village? Do we really realize that every mission we take could end with our death?"

Rin thought this over as she slowly kneaded circles on Kakashi's hand.

"Perhaps we don't consciously think about it," she began slowly, "but I think that deep down we all know that we may end up giving our lives to protect those we love. I don't think we would have entered the Academy if we were afraid to die."

"Why _did_ you enter the Academy?" Kakashi found himself blurting out.

Rin laughed mirthlessly.

"Because I wanted to save people. You can see how well that worked," she said shaking her head and looking up as if to apologize to Obito for failing to save him. Logically she knew that she couldn't save every person, every time. But something inside of Rin told her that it was all her fault Obito's hitai-ate was now on her nightstand instead of his head. If only she had been a better shinobi and hadn't gotten captured in the first place…

But she'd change that, Rin thought, determined. She was going to be joining her new genin team within the week, and she'd work as hard as she could. She would be the best shinobi she could possibly be, and she'd never let down one of her teammates again.

* * *

Note: I'm really proud of this chapter for some reason. I tried to use more descriptions and less dialogue, and I think I succeeded to some extent. 

Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ugh," Rin said with a sigh as she stumbled into the apartment she shared, tossing her backpack by the door with her sandals.

Kakashi looked up from the mission report he was writing.

"Long day?" he asked, smirking.

"I swear Minato-Sensei assigned me to the most dysfunctional genin team on purpose," Rin complained, flopping on the couch with a groan.

Kakashi laughed, putting down his pen to talk to her.

"It sounds like something he would do. Who's on your team?"

"As if you're know them, Mr. Chunnin-At-Age-Six," she teased him before answering. "My new sensei is Onohara Shizune, and my teammates are Maito Gai and Hyuuga Ryuu."

"Shizune-San was on Minato-Sensei's old genin team, wasn't she?" Kakashi asked Rin.

Rin nodded.

"She's been training under Tsunade-Sama for a while, though. She got promoted to jounin recently, so we're her first team. She's pretty intense, but she's a really good medic-nin and I think I'll learn a lot under her. It's Gai-Kun and Ryuu-Kun that are driving me up a wall."

"What's wrong with them? I mean, you put up with me and…"

Kakashi paused for a second as his breath hitched before taking a deep breath and continuing, "me and Obito arguing all the time. Are they really that bad?"

Rin sighed as she thought of what her team had been during the war, and how different things were now. Pushing away those thoughts, she continued the conversation with Kakashi.

"It's not that they argue," she explained, "they're just, well, Gai has this whole insane punishment system he's worked out for himself and Ryuu is branch family Hyuuga."

"You got stuck with a branch family Hyuuga?" Kakashi said, making a face under the mask.

"Ryuu-Kun is actually better than Gai-Kun," Rin told him as she began massaging the back of her neck. "Gai keeps challenging Ryuu to these crazy competitions and when he fails, which he inevitably does, he punishes himself by doing some insane number of pushups or kicks or laps around the village. And when he fails to finish his insane number of punishment exercises, he punishes himself with an insane number of a different exercise. Shizune-Sensei eventually had to stop him so we could pick up our mission scroll."

Kakashi laughed.

"Sounds like you're having a fun time. When are the chunnin exams again?"

"Three months and a week," Rin said, still massaging her neck. "I can't wait until they're over. I just hope I pass."

"You'll pass," Kakashi told her.

Rin rolled over from her prone position on the couch to look at him.

"What makes you so sure?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"You're a good ninja, and you're determined. You'll pass."

"I think you put too much faith in me," Rin informed him. "I don't have many skills other than healing, and that won't do me much good if I make it to the final battles and I'm on my own."

"You're working on that. I'm sure that's why Minato-sensei placed you with two taijutsu users. That's your worst form, so you'll get a lot of practice countering it. And you'll get more experience as a medic under Shizune-san."

"I still think you put too much faith in me," Rin told him, a bit surprised that Kakashi had not only managed to work out their former sensei's logic behind the makeup of her team, but also knew her teammates dominant forms.

Kakashi shrugged.

"Think what you will. I know the truth."

"I could say the same to you," Rin sighed, rolling back over on the couch and dragging a pillow over her head. "Can you wake me up in an hour?"

"You heading over to the hospital again tonight?" he asked her.

"Mhmm," she mumbled into the couch. "I'm working the night shift as usual."

"Do you want dinner?"

"No thanks. I'll eat there," Rin mumbled nearly incoherently.

Kakashi shook his head, wondering if Rin actually ate during her hospital shifts or if she just said that to appease him. Though he seldom showed it, Kakashi worried about Rin. He knew she was stretched thin between her training and working at the hospital.

Sighing, he made his way into his bedroom and picked up a blanket. Moving as stealthily as the ninja he was, he tiptoed back into the living room and draped it over his now sleeping housemate. After making sure she was still sleeping, Kakashi crept over to the kitchen, looking at the unfinished mission report on his way past it and resolving to finish it once Rin had left for the hospital.

* * *

An hour later, Rin felt someone gently shaking her shoulder.

"Wake up, Rin. It's six o'clock," Kakashi said quietly, not really wanting to wake her up. He wanted to let her sleep, but he knew Rin would never forgive him if he did. She took her duties as a shinobi seriously – too seriously in his opinion.

He had made the mistake of telling her this once. Rin had chewed him out for an hour, pointing out that he was always away on his high ranking missions, so who was he to talk about taking the job of a shinobi too seriously. She didn't seem to understand that that was _him_. She was different. Rin was a medic nin. The village couldn't afford her collapsing from exhaustion.

She didn't understand this, and so he continued to wake her up when she asked to be lest he have to face the consequences later.

"Riiiin, it's time to wake up," he called again, as patronizingly as he could.

"I'm up, I'm up," she snarled, as Kakashi smirked. It worked every time.

Despite her exhaustion from the day's sparring, Rin rolled off the couch with a glare at the jounin. She hurried off to the bathroom, partially to wash her face and partially to get away from Kakashi. Her hands shook as she picked up the washcloth and stuck it under the faucet. She hadn't been getting enough sleep since the war had ended and it was starting to catch up with her. She splashed the cold water on her face to wake herself up again, then scrubbed it dry.

Rin hustled out of the bathroom and was about to head out the door when a hand stopped her. She looked up to see Kakashi holding out a bento box.

"For dinner," he told her quietly.

"Oh, you didn't have to," she said as she turned faintly pink.

"I know, but you never eat," he told her, as pink as she.

"Thank you."

Kakashi nodded slowly as Rin gave him a quick hug before heading out the door at a run.

Making her way to the hospital to begin her shift, Rin often wished that she could have just one day off. Yet she knew how impossible that was. The village had lost too many ninja during the war, and it would take years to bring their population back to what it once was. Thus, Rin's days were spent running low rank missions with her team and her nights were spent working in the Konoha Hospital. She refused to complain about it though, as many of the other young ninja did.

She saw how hard Kakashi worked, and he was no older than she. Well, she saw the products of how hard he worked whenever he was back in the village. If he hadn't landed himself in the hospital (which he seemed to do more and more often) he was busy filling out mission reports. Once the mission report was filed, Kakashi would be back in the field on another mission.

She saw how hard Shizune-sensei worked as well. She spent most of her day training them in addition to studying with Tsunade _and_ pulling shifts in the hospital. Rin had no right to complain about her workload.

Having made her way to the hospital lost in thought, Rin pushed open the doors and stepped into the harsh hospital light. She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the light, before walking up to the front desk.

"Hi Rin-chan!" the civilian receptionist behind the desk said as she pulled out a sheaf of papers. "You're working under Naoki-san today in the pediatric section."

"Thank you," Rin said, fighting to keep the smile on her face as she picked up the stack of papers the receptionist was handing to her. Rin hated working in the pediatric section.

Of course Rin knew why she was always being put in the pediatric section. Everyone thought she loved children. The fact was, Rin only put up with them because it was her job. Unlike many of the other medical-nin, she didn't just pass over them because they were smaller and younger than she was. She knew they deserved the same quality of care that the older patients did, so despite her dislike for them, she never complained.

Yet under her all of her smiles, Rin longed to be somewhere else. She was a field medic at heart, and she performed her best under the worst conditions. She was much happier treating wounds in the field where the mud and the blood and the sweat and the tears all mixed together and you couldn't tell what was what anymore. It was so much more visceral than this sterile hospital environment.

Yawning slightly, Rin made her way to the pediatric area of the hospital. It was fairly late in the evening, so there weren't many people in the hallways. There were a few frazzled-looking parents walking around and a few small children playing quietly in the waiting areas, but otherwise the area was fairly deserted. Thus it wasn't difficult to find Naoki, who was talking to a young couple. Rin waited politely, just out of earshot, until they were done.

"Naoki-san?" she asked when the couple had left.

"Yes?"

"I'm working under you tonight," she explained as she handed him the stack of papers she'd been carrying. "Here are the patient files. Is there anything you'd like me to do right now?"

"If you could check in on the boy in room 264, that would be great," he told her. "I tried getting him to sleep, but he hasn't been sleeping well. He keeps waking up screaming for his parents and wakes up the other children."

"Where are his parents?"

"They both work nights," he told her brusquely before walking off.

Rin shook her head as she walked to room 264. Naoki-san didn't seem to like her very much. Maybe he's just having a bad day, she thought. A lot of the medical ninja were wearing thin with the high numbers of patients and shortage of medics. She yawned again before opening to door. This was going to be a long night, it seemed.

* * *

Note: My apologies for the long time it's taken me to update. School and life got in the way for a while. This seemed to be a more introspective chapter than I'd initially planned. I hope the last section doesn't seem too choppy or unrelated. I took a month long writing break during finals and vacation before I sat back down to finish up this chapter. Hopefully writing the next chapter will be quicker.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

Walking into hospital room 264, Rin paused for a minute after closing the door to allow her eyes to adjust to the low light. Once she could see well enough not to trip over things (you never knew what toys might have been accidentally left on the floor in the pediatric section), Rin tiptoed over to the occupied bed. The boy seemed to be sleeping well enough, so Rin quietly left the room before her presence disturbed him. She made a mental note to check up on the boy later in the shift.

As Rin continued to make her rounds, she found it harder and harder to keep herself awake. An hour of sleep between practice and work really wasn't enough, especially since she had only gotten four and a half hours the previous night, as she'd lost a patient that evening and couldn't get to sleep. She'd stayed awake, pouring through medical scrolls and desperately trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong when Kakashi had come home from his mission and demanded that she go to bed.

Ready to keel over from exhaustion, Rin made her way to the restroom. She stumbled into one of the stalls and put the lid down on the seat. Sitting there, she leaned against the wall and gratefully closed her eyes.

A few minutes later Rin woke with a start, catching herself before she fell off the toilet. Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Rin walked over to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. It helped wake her up a bit, as had the shock of nearly falling off the toilet. She blushed with embarrassment at that thought.

"It's a good thing no one's around to see tha-oof!" Rin broke off as she ran into someone as she stepped out of the (aptly named) restroom.

"Rin-chan!" Naoki scolded her as she tried to collect herself. "I've been looking for you. Someone from custodial brought up a cart of supplies, so you'll have to put those away. Make sure everything gets put in the correct place. After you're done with that, I need you to check on the patient in room 264 again, as well as the patients in 234, 281, and 249. The patient in 281 needs his bandages changed."

Rin sighed. She hated being put to work as just another menial nurse, but she really couldn't fault Naoki-san for that. She was, after all, still only a genin, even if she had the skill set of a higher-level medic. She just wished that he could see that she could be useful in ways other than putting away medical supplies and changing bandages.

"Yes, Naoki-san," she murmured, ever the obedient shinobi.

After Rin put away the medical supplies and returned the cart to the custodians, she began to make her rounds with her assigned patients. The boy in 264 was still asleep, as was the girl in 234. Rin wasn't terribly surprised, though. Naoki-san had given her the easiest patients.

She grabbed a roll of bandages from the supply room before making her way to room 281. Yawning, she opened the door with one hand as she rubbed her eyes with the other.

Entering the room, Rin noticed that the boy was already awake and alert. She put on her best smile and approached the bed.

"Hello," she chirped brightly in an attempt to hide her exhaustion as she quickly scanned the medical file that was hanging at the foot of the bed.

"Hullo," he muttered, "are you here to change my bandages?"

"Yes I am."

He held out his heavily bandaged hands with a scowl on his face.

"How did you do that?" Rin asked as she pulled a chair over to the hospital bed.

The boy flushed before answering.

"I let my jutsu get out of control and it burned me," he told her, continuing to scowl unhappily.

"Oh," Rin said, slightly surprised.

As she began peeling off the thick layers of dressing, Rin wondered what kind of parents would teach their young child a fire jutsu, and then allow them to use it unsupervised. She got her answer as soon as she looked up.

At first Rin thought that the boy was trying to hold back tears as she pulled off the old bandages. Then she realized that his eyes were far too red for simple tears. He was staring intently at her work with an activated Sharingan.

With blink of his eyes, the boy's eyes went back to black as he looked up at her.

"Why are you stopping?" he asked, scowl returning.

"Sorry. I didn't realize you were an Uchiha."

"So?" he asked her bluntly.

Rin gaped, at a loss for words. She didn't even know why she was so surprised that he was an Uchiha. She supposed it was because she had never met someone from Obito's clan before. Now that she thought about it, Rin realized that she knew almost nothing about her former teammate's clan. There were so many things that she had never bothered to ask him about his life or his family. She had gotten a general sense from him that his family life wasn't so good, but she had never bothered to probe any deeper. Not that any of their family lives could really have been called good, what with Kakashi's being nonexistent and Rin's parents generally disapproving of her.

Even so, Rin wished she had asked Obito more about his family when she had had the chance. He had even invited her over to his house once, but she had refused, deciding her time would be better spent at the library studying. She had told him that she would come another day, but she never did. And now it was too late. Obito was gone, his hitai-ate and Sharingan the lone remainders of what had been one of the most cheerful shinobi in the village.

Rin's reveries were interrupted by her patient's sudden shout.

"Momma, you came! Papa! You came too!"

Rin turned around to see two people in the uniform of Konoha's police force standing in the doorway. She smiled and raised her hand in a welcoming gesture.

They began to give her a stiff smile (and Rin wondered if Obito had been the only Uchiha that knew how to smile) before recognition flashed in their eyes.

"You are Tanaka Rin?" the father asked darkly.

"I am," she answered, vaguely wondering if too many years on the police force had caused him to ask every question like he was interrogating someone.

"You were on Obito-kun's genin team," the mother hissed.

"I was," Rin told her, not quite sure if she had been asking a question, but figuring that she ought to cover all her bases with the hostile intent that the woman was radiating.

Before she realized what was going on, Rin found herself being dragged out of the hospital room by her arm.

"Don't you ever go near our son again," the father practically growled at her.

"But he needs his bandages changed…" Rin trailed off, clearly afraid.

"I will do that," the mother stated, snatching the roll out of her hand and stalking back into the room with her son.

"I need to speak with your supervisor about this. Where is he?" the father demanded, his grip still tight on Rin's bicep.

"I-I don't know," she stammered. "H-he's probably with a p-patient somewhere. W-why are you doing this?"

"Never mind," he told he, grip tightening as his anger mounted. "We are going to find your supervisor."

Rin felt that it was best not to protest, as one of Konoha's police force seemed to have a death-grip on her arm. She followed helplessly as he stalked down the hallway in search of Naoki.

"Rin! Where are you going?" Naoki asked, popping his head out of one of the rooms they had just passed. "Shouldn't you be checking on the patients?"

"Naoki-san!" Rin cried out before the Uchiha interrupted her.

"Are you her supervisor?" he asked, dragging Rin back towards the room Naoki was standing in.

"Yes, I am," he answered before asking, "Rin, what did you do this time?"

"I didn't-"

"I do not want this girl going anywhere near my son from now on. Is that understood? She is an abomination, and why she is being tolerated in a hospital of all places is beyond me."

"What did she do?" Naoki asked as he looked at Rin in confusion.

"I didn't-"

"She murdered one of our clan!"

"She what?!"

"I never!"

"You killed him! You and that Hatake boy killed Obito-kun! You killed him for his Sharingan and then transplanted it in the Hatake!"

"I didn't kill him!" Rin exclaimed shrilly. "He asked me to transplant the Sharingan to Kakashi as a dying gift. He was crushed by a giant boulder. I didn't kill him. I didn't kill him!"

Tears began leaking out the corners of her eyes as the two men looked at her.

"You know, the two of you were alone with him and his body was never returned," Naoki pondered aloud.

"I didn't kill him! Minato-sensei and I went back to burn his body so the enemy couldn't use it. We couldn't take him back with us," Rin cried as she began struggling to get out of the Uchiha's grip.

"Everyone knows that Hatake Kakashi was Namikaze's favorite student. What proof is that? He just wanted to cover up for Hatake. Didn't want his prize pupil to be sentenced to death for being a traitor," the Uchiha stated, not releasing her arm.

"He's not a traitor! We didn't kill him! Get off of me!" she screamed, trying to pry his fingers off of her arm. Failing that, and frustration mounting, she simply pulled back and punched him in the nose as hard as she could. Rin felt bone crunch under her fingers.

The Uchiha gasped in shock as he let go of her arm to clutch his bleeding nose.

Not wanting to lose her chance at freedom, Rin blindly took off running down the hallway, tears streaming down her face. She made it about halfway before she ran into something. She would have continued running, but the person she had run into grabbed her arm where the Uchiha had been holding her. She gasped as the pain quickly brought her back to her surroundings.

"What on Earth is going on?" a familiar voice asked.

Rin looked up to find her new jounin instructor, Onohara Shizune looking questioningly at her. She then looked behind her to see Naoki with one arm wrapped around the much larger Uchiha and the other hand pressed against the man's nose in an attempt to heal the damage Rin had caused. Somehow thin-framed pediatrician seemed to be managing to keep the larger man in place (he was attempting to charge at Rin). Rin was mildly impressed until she remembered that Naoki had sided with the Uchiha in the argument and her thoughts turned black again.

"I didn't kill him," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. "I didn't kill him. I couldn't save him, but I didn't kill him."

"Huh?" Shizune asked, thoroughly confused. "Who didn't you kill?"

"Obito-kun," she whispered. "I didn't kill him. I swear I didn't kill him. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. I left him there. Dying. Alone."

"I heard that!" the bleeding Uchiha bellowed. "You said you should have killed him! I knew it! I knew it!"

With one final shove, he managed to toss the pediatrician off him and began hurtling himself towards Shizune and Rin, forming hand seals as he ran.

Rin gasped when he looked up and her muddy brown eyes met the crimson of his Sharingan.

* * *

**Note:** Sorry for the long wait between chapter updates. I've been somewhat busy with school and generally unmotivated to write. It doesn't help that I'm not really sure where the story is going right now. (Well, I know where it's going in the long-term. It's the short-term that's giving me problems.) Feel free to make suggestions. Unless it clashes with the long-term plot, there's a good chance it'll be incorporated into the story.  
I'm also quite sorry if there are any terrible grammar mistakes in this chapter. A good majority of it was written very late at night, and I only proofread it once. Not that this is any excuse.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

_Rin gasped when he looked up and her muddy brown eyes met the crimson of his Sharingan. _

Remembering everything Minato-sensei had explained to her about the Sharingan when Kakashi had collapsed the day she began living with him, Rin quickly shut her eyes before she could be trapped in a genjutsu. Then she realized that she had no idea what he was doing.

Panic filled her as it dawned upon her that a high level member of the Konoha police force seemed determined to kill her and she couldn't see what he was doing. For all she knew, he was three inches from sticking a kunai in her throat. Realizing this, Rin stood unmoving in the hallway as she fought the urge to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

A shout brought her out of her panicked state.

"Rin! Move!" Shizune yelled as she pushed her out of the way of the incoming Uchiha.

Right, Rin thought, turning Shizune's shove into a coordinated roll, I'm a ninja. As she came out of the roll, she pivoted towards the noisiest area and chanced opening her eyes.

At any other time, the scene before her would have reduced Rin to fits of laughter. Both Shizune and Naoki were attempting to restrain the Uchiha, who looked almost exactly like an angry bull. He was even puffing and snorting as he tried to free himself from their grips. As Rin calculated the best angle to jump in to knock the man out, he looked up and Rin found herself no longer in the hospital.

_She was standing alone at the edge of a large forest. The sky was dark, but she could see the faint outline of light in the distance. As she stood there trying to figure out where she was, the light slowly began to rise higher. So it was dawn, then. _

_Somewhere deep down, Rin knew that this was just a genjutsu. It couldn't be real. But that knowledge seemed to sink further and further until trying to dispel the illusion no longer seemed like an option. _

_Looking out from the forest, Rin saw that there was a giant crater in front of her. She began walking down into the crater, exploring in the dim light of the dawn. There were kunai and shuriken strewn about, as well as large piles of rocks. As she passed one of the rock piles, it twitched out an arm and reached for her ankle. Looking again, Rin realized that none of the rock piles were actually rocks. They were all bodies that she had mistaken for rocks in the dim light. _

_Turning, she knelt by the person who had reached for her ankle. His throat had been cut and he was lying in a pool of blood. Rin could tell he wouldn't have much longer to live; she was surprised that he had even had the strength to reach out for her. Still kneeling, she took his hand in hers and told him that it was all right to let go. Perhaps his mother had told him to always listen to a medic, because he did. Rin closed his eyes and moved on. He had been in her class at the academy. _

_Rin stood and continued to make her way towards the center of the crater. Every few feet she was stopped by a dying shinobi. Some, like her classmate, had had their throats cut. Others had their stomachs sliced open, or limbs ripped off, and one still had a kunai embedded in his eye. All of them were beyond saving. All of them reached out for her with pleading looks. She knew the name of every one. _

_By the time she reached the deepest point in the crater, it was well past dawn. There was a single blackened body lying in a heap, and something compelled Rin to kneel down next to it. Whoever the shinobi had been, it was now unrecognizable beneath the burned clothing. She reached down to gently lay her hand against the blackened cheek, wishing him or her a safe passage to their next life. As soon as she touched the charred flesh, the shinobi's eyes flew open and Rin jumped back with a startled scream. _

_One eye was blue-grey and the other was blood red. _

_What Rin had done for all the other dying ninja, she could not bring herself to do for her dying teammate. She could not go back and kneel next to his body. She could not hold his hand as he passed slowly and painfully away from this life. She could not go over and tell him that everything would be all right. That it was okay to let go. All Rin could do was huddle a few feet away and sob uncontrollably as those eyes continued to bore into her. _

_"Rin! Rin!" she heard Kakashi call. _

_She clamped her hands over her ears and curled up around herself. She couldn't bear to hear him calling out for her help. Couldn't he see that he was beyond help? Couldn't he see there was nothing she could do? That once again, she was worthless. That once again she could not save her teammate. That she was only a burden, pulling them down and getting them killed. Couldn't he understand that? Why was he still calling for her, then? _

"Kai!"

Rin's eyes snapped open, and once again she was staring into mismatched eyes. Jumping back with a scream, she looked at her teammate in horror. As Kakashi pulled his forehead protector over his Sharingan, he raised his eyebrows at his teammate's peculiar behavior. Only then did Rin realize that she was no longer trapped in the genjutsu. Kakashi was quite whole and decidedly unburned.

Collecting her wits, she looked around to find Shizune sitting on top of a tied up Uchiha. And he was being lectured about attacking innocent genin.

Turning back to Kakashi, she asked, "What are you doing here? Don't you have a mission report to finish?"

"Erm…" Kakashi answered, "Well, umm, I forgot to give you the thermos of miso that I made…"

On top of her other worries, exhaustion, and the stress of being attacked by an upper-level ninja in a place she thought safe, this piece of information was too much for Rin to bear. She started giggling hysterically. And then she started crying.

When she didn't show any signs of stopping, Kakashi began to look concerned. Had this Uchiha madman managed to break her? Already pushed to her limits, had he managed to push her beyond them? What exactly had he shown her in that genjutsu?

He felt a sharp tap on the top of his head, and looked up to see Shizune giving him a disapproving glare. He shot back a questioning look.

"Hold her, you idiot."

So Kakashi went over to his former teammate and pulled her towards the chairs in the nearby waiting area. Still shaking with sobs, Rin gasped as she felt Kakashi lift her up and deposit her in his lab as he sat in one of the chairs. Kakashi felt her hook her fingers into the armholes of his vest and bury her face into the collar. Awkwardly, he placed his arms around the bundle in his lap and looked down at the expanse of muddy brown hair below his chin.

Kakashi felt Rin slowly begin to relax in his arms as the grip on his vest slackened. Once her breathing started to calm down, she shakily began speaking into his collar.

"I'm s-sorry you have to keep s-seeing me like this. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm worse that Ob-bito."

Kakashi shook his head, trying to figure out what to say to her. He was so out of his depth right now. He had no idea how to comfort his crying teammate. He knew six different ways to mask his scent from an enemy. He knew how to calculate the proper trajectory to hit any target with any weapon. He even knew how to change diapers after that escort mission where somehow he had ended up in charge of the baby, and yet he had no idea what to say to Rin.

He looked around to see if Shizune had any more pointers for him, but she appeared to be busy helping the hospital security escort the Uchiha out of the building. Kakashi sighed, wishing that Minato was there. His sensei always knew what to say to people.

"What's wrong, Kakashi?" Rin asked, pulling her face out of his vest to look up at him.

He gave her a blank look.

"You sighed. What's wrong?"

" I don't know. I guess life was so much simpler before Obito died. Always follow the rules. Complete the mission at whatever cost. I thought I knew what I was doing for all these years, and now I've found out I was completely wrong," Kakashi babbled, trying to mask what he was actually thinking. _I hate seeing you so upset and vulnerable and I don't have a clue what to say to change that. You almost got killed by a crazed parent tonight, and I wasn't here to protect you. I thought you would be safe in the hospital, but I was patently wrong._

To Kakashi's surprise, Rin gave him a small smile. "Congratulations, Kakashi. You're a human being. You make mistakes."

"The village can't afford any more mistakes," Kakashi bitterly complained. "Obito couldn't afford my mistakes. Mistakes get you and your teammates killed."

"Obito wasn't your fault, Kakashi," Rin snapped. "If I hadn't gotten captured in the first place, none of that would have happened."

"I was the mission leader. I should have been paying more attention. I should have been able to protect my teammates."

"A team is only as strong as its weakest member. If only I had spent more time on the training grounds, Obito might still be here."

"The medic-nin is never the weakest team member. If you had spent less time learning all your medical jutsu, Obito and I would have been long dead. It's my fault for not going back for you when Obito told me to."

"How can you say that? I could never keep up with the two of you. Completely incapable of advanced genjutsu, and marginal at best with taijutsu, I constantly dragged you down. I know you thought it; you nearly said it on more than one occasion," Rin said, voice raised and close to tears again.

"I was nothing but a jerk back then. I was forever telling Obito he was completely worthless," Kakashi countered angrily. "I had my priorities all wrong and it took his death to teach me my lesson. If only I had learned to value my teammates earlier."

"Ahem…"

The two of them jumped as the Yondaime loudly cleared his throat behind them.

"When I was told one of my students had been attacked by a member of the police force, I teleported here as fast as I could. I thought I was going to find her bleeding and mangled, but what do I find instead? Both of my students sitting on a chair arguing with each other! And what, you may ask, were they arguing about?"

"It wasn't an argument," Kakashi interjected resentfully.

"You were arguing over who is bears more guilt for Obito's death! I can't believe you two," Minato continued, his voice getting louder with each passing word. "You can blame yourselves until you're blue in the face, but that isn't going to change anything. It's already done. He's already dead. It's water under the bridge…"

All three of them winced at Minato's poor choice of wording.

The first to recover, Rin got off of Kakashi's lap and turned to face Minato. "I'm sorry you had to come down here for nothing, Sensei. I should get back to work now."

"But Rin, you can't…" Kakashi began, stopping when Minato laid a hand on his shoulder. Kakashi turned to see his former sensei shaking his head.

"Let her go, Kakashi. She needs something to distract her. You can come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"To the Tanaka tea shop."

* * *

Author's Note: I'm so sorry about the terribly long wait between chapters. I stopped reading Naruto because it stopped holding my interest, and thus, this story got put on hold. I'm still not reading the manga, but I'm finally getting around to completing this fic after much nagging from one of my friends. The next update should be up in significantly less time than this one took.


	6. Chapter 6

Rin stalked down the hospital corridor, trying to get her emotions under control. It wasn't that she was actually angry at Sensei, it was more that she was angry that he was right and she didn't want to believe it.

Since Rin wasn't sure which patients Naoki wanted her to check in on, she went back to restocking the medical supply carts.

Minato may have been correct about the futility of brooding over the past, but Rin knew that if she'd been paying more attention that day, her teammate might still be alive. Her mind hadn't been fully on the mission as it should have been. Instead of focusing on the dangers rife in enemy territory, she had been thinking about the obscure medical scroll she'd been studying before the mission.

Knowing that she would never be able to keep up with her teammates in the field, Rin had sought to surpass them in the only way that she could. In that she had succeeded. A mere genin should not have been able to perform a successful eye transplant unsupervised, especially outside of a medical facility. On the other hand, Rin thought savagely, even a genin should know that not paying attention during a mission is a good way to get yourself killed.

She had counted on her teammates to be able to protect her. She had thought being a medic-nin was enough to keep her safe. She had never been so wrong.

In the midst of her brooding, Rin didn't notice Shizune trying to get her attention.

"Rin. Rin! Rin are you listening?"

"What?" she asked, turning to face her jounin instructor. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I asked what you were still doing here. You should be at home."

"But my shift isn't over yet, Shizune-sensei," Rin told her, confused.

"You just got attacked, Rin. You need to go home."

"The Hokage said that I could stay…"

Shizune snorted and rolled her eyes. "Minato's not a medic-nin, and thinks getting attacked on the job makes it more interesting. And he's the Hokage now and has to think of the good of the whole village. You may have been one of his pet genin, but he knows medics are in short supply, so he's certainly not going to tell you to go home if you don't ask to. Trust me, I was on a team with him for years and his new rank hasn't changed him one bit. However, _I_ am your jounin instructor now, and _I_ am telling you to go home early. Get some rest, and don't stay up all night brooding over that Uchiha. And don't be surprised if you get a summons for a hearing tomorrow. Minato will not take kindly to a grown man attacking a twelve year-old girl at the hospital."

"Yes, Shizune-sensei," Rin said meekly.

* * *

"Sensei, why are we going to Rin's parents' tea shop?" Kakashi asked as the two ninja strolled down the street.

"There are some things you need to know about your friend, Kakashi. It will be easier to explain once you have seen her family."

"She's not my…" Kakashi began. He paused. "I guess she is my friend," he finished quietly. Kakashi had always denied having friendships; he felt those ties could only hold him down. It was always colleague or teammate, never friend. But Rin… Rin must be his friend. Why else would he go to the trouble to make sure she got dinner during her hospital shifts? Why else would she have made sure his laundry was mended and the dishes clean?

"I see you're finally understanding. For a genius, you can certainly be thick sometimes," Minato teased his former student as he propelled him though the door of the tea shop.

"I'm sorry, we're closing in a few minutes," an older lady wearing a lilac dress with an apron informed them. She looked up from her sweeping to guide them back outside before recognition dawned in her eyes. "Forgive me, Hokage-sama," she said with a deep bow, "I did not realize who had come in. Please have a seat, and my daughter will be right out with your tea."

"Rin has a sister?" Kakashi whispered as he began to examine the tea shop.

"She has an older sister and a younger brother," Minato informed him, sitting at one of the tables near a small household shrine. "Her brother is obviously still in school, and her sister helps her parents out here."

Kakashi came over to sit with his teacher when a young woman walked out of the back room carrying a tray. She looked to be several years older than Rin, with the same mousy brown hair. Unlike Rin, her sister's hair went halfway down her back, with little flowers braided into a strand hanging down the right side of her face. With a small bow she placed the tray between the two ninja.

"Enjoy your tea, Hokage-sama, Shinobi-san," she told them.

Minato smiled and thanked her, but it was at that moment Kakashi spied the picture nestled in the back of the little shrine.

"What is Rin's picture doing in _there_!" he demanded, louder than he realized.

"I am sorry to say that my younger sister passed away recently," the young woman informed him, looking slightly concerned by Kakashi's reaction.

"What do you mean?" asked a shocked Kakashi. "We saw her less than an hour ago!"

Rin's sister looked embarrassed, quickly excused herself, and fled from the room as she saw her mother bearing down on the table.

"My daughter chose a life of pain and killing over her family. She is dead to us now," the older woman haughtily informed them. "As I said before, we are closing in a few minutes…"

"Yes, we're very sorry to be taking up your time like this," Minato apologized, placing a far greater sum of money on the table than the tea could have possibly cost. "We're just leaving."

With that, Kakashi found himself being towed out of the tea shop by his arm.

"What was that all about?" he asked his Sensei when his arm was finally released a few blocks later.

"I told you, there are some things you should know about Rin, and they become far clearer once you have seen what her family is like. I had hoped that our encounter would go a bit more smoothly, but I think you saw what you needed to see in there."

Realizing that he would never be able to avoid the lecture that was inevitably coming, Kakashi simply followed Minato through the late night crowds. He silently accepted the dango that Minto handed to him after a stop by a street vendor, and continued to follow until they came to a small park. After picking a clear spot on the grass, Minato resumed his explanation.

"Unlike you and Obito, Rin was not born into a great ninja family. From the moment you were born, it was expected that you would go to the Academy and become a great shinobi. Rin had to choose that life, and in doing so she gave up a great deal. In choosing to enter the Academy, she gave up any chance of a normal childhood. When most children were learning their multiplication tables, Rin was learning how to throw shuriken accurately. When most children were learning algebra, Rin was learning which poisons are undetectable in food. When most girls are beginning to really notice boys for the first time, Rin was learning how to seduce a man and get him to spill secret information without him even realizing it."

Kakashi's eyes widened at the last statement. He had graduated the Academy too early to have taken any interest in what the older girls were learning in their special classes. He was going to have a _very_ healthy respect for kunoichi from now on…

With a small laugh at Kakashi's expression, Minto continued the lesson. "I don't think Rin ever really told her parents much about what she was learning at the Academy. I think she probably told them that she was learning to become a medic, and they accepted this without much thought. With two other children and a tea shop to take care of, they were probably just happy that their younger daughter got good grades and never got into trouble.

"After the war started, everything changed. Rin wasn't just practicing in the village with her team or working shifts at the hospital, she was leaving on missions for weeks at a time. She couldn't tell them about what she was doing, because even the lower ranking missions are classified to civilians. Konoha was at war, so they couldn't forbid her from being a ninja, but they finally realized what being a medic-nin was really about. It wasn't about delivering babies in a nice clean hospital; it was about trying to save dying ninja without getting killed in the process.

"But when the war ended, Rin's parents wanted her to quit being a ninja. They didn't realize that it isn't something that you can just leave behind. You don't vow to give your life to protect the village, and then decide later that you've changed your mind."

"Shinobi 'til the day you die," Kakashi said quietly.

"That's right," Minato said as he placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulders. "You know that, I know that, and Rin knows that. It's one of the first things you learn in the Academy, but Rin's family will never understand that. To them, being a shinobi is just like any other job."

"They could not be more wrong," Kakashi whispered, finally understanding what his teammate had had to contend with to get where she was. Maybe he was the lucky one to have no family trying to hold him back out of some kind of misguided delusion they claimed to be love.

* * *

Note: Sorry again for the super long updates. (And such a short chapter too!) I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, mostly because of all the liberties I took with Rin's family. I hope her mother didn't come on too strong with the whole "she's dead to us" speech.

As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.


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